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mercredi 12 août 2015

Ecuador’s New Indigenous Uprising

Ecuador’s Indigenous movements have launched an uprising to challenge the government’s opposition to bilingual education and its support for an extractive-based economy.

On August 2, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) began a march from the southeastern Amazonian province of Zamora Chinchipe that will arrive in the capital city of Quito on August 13. Upon its arrival, the Indigenous march will join a general strike called by the Workers United Front (FUT) in opposition to the government’s labor policies.

The CONAIE march and FUT strike are separate actions from conservative protests that the wealthy and previously dominant oligarchy organized in June 2015 against proposed increases in inheritance and capital gains taxes. In that situation, Ecuador’s leftist president Rafael Correa backed down in the face of the right wing’s defense of their class interests, and called for dialogue rather than protest.

The CONAIE declared that during his almost decade in power Correa had never shown an interest in talking to them and that the time for dialogue was... Read more